Spies Themes and Perspectives
- Created by: Jo-Robertson
- Created on: 06-01-18 17:13
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- Themes and Perspectives
- 1st & 3rd person narrative viewpoints
- Starts in 1st person
- Stefan
- 'I catch it on the warm evening air as I walk'
- Pronoun I indicating first person
- 'I catch it on the warm evening air as I walk'
- Told from the perspective of the character
- Stefan
- Written in 3rd person
- Ch 2 Stefan begins to think about Stephen
- References to Stephen are written in 3rd person narrative voice
- First person narrator asking 'is that the way he seems him at his age' p12
- Use of 'he' confusing
- Refers to the narrator as a child
- All references to the narrator as a child are written in 3rd person
- Refers to the narrator as a child
- Use of 'he' confusing
- First person narrator asking 'is that the way he seems him at his age' p12
- References to Stephen are written in 3rd person narrative voice
- Ch 2 Stefan begins to think about Stephen
- Fran
- When she adopts the 3rd person it is the 3rd person 'limited narrator'
- Can only read the thoughts of Stefan himself
- Never know what Keith, Mrs Hayward or any of the other characters are thinking just Stefan
- This creates the reader as a spy
- Novel flips between the present and the past in 1st and 3rd person narrative voice
- Starts in 1st person
- Chronology
- a structural technique by Frayn
- Non linear timeline
- Element of post modern literature
- Young Stephen and old Stefan
- Why does Frayn shift from 1st to 3rd person narration
- Performs technical function
- Helping readers understand what young Stephen believes and what is actually happening in reality
- A sense of mystery
- Allows the reader to be misled by the assumptions of Keith Stephen
- We are reading what the boys understood rather than the reality of what was happening
- Stephen believes Keith has seen 'a kind of talking monkey' p18
- Reader knows this cannot be true and does not believe Keith but Stephen does
- When Stephen knows Mrs Hayward 'posted letters ... several times a day'
- The reader knows that it is unlikely that she is posting letters but Stephen does not know this
- The reader again comes a spy working out what the young naive Stephen cannot
- The reader knows that it is unlikely that she is posting letters but Stephen does not know this
- Stephen believes Keith has seen 'a kind of talking monkey' p18
- 1st person narrator
- Easy to assume indicates childish naivety
- Assumes a more mature objective
- Not the case, you need to ask is the narrator reliable
- Only told from one characters perspective
- There is no corroboration from other characters or an object 3rd person narrator
- From whom we can confirm the reliability of what we have read
- There is no corroboration from other characters or an object 3rd person narrator
- Only told from one characters perspective
- Not the case, you need to ask is the narrator reliable
- Undermined by Frayn
- p6 Stefan jokes that he can be contacted 'Amnesia Avenue'
- early indication that Stefan and old man has problems with his memory
- As a reader we question anything we are being told by this narrator
- p6 Stefan jokes that he can be contacted 'Amnesia Avenue'
- Performs technical function
- At the end of the novel which narrator do you feel is most reliable and why?
- Unreliable narrator
- Credibility called in to question
- The case in Spies
- Credibility called in to question
- 1st & 3rd person narrative viewpoints
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